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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

House of European Propaganda

Just come across this very good piece by the Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield missed while we were away for the Christmas break.

He writes that MEPs have given the green light to a multi-million pound state-of-the-art "House of European History" to be opened in Brussels by 2014, with an aim to "promote an awareness of European identity."

In keeping with the dozens of examples uncovered in our own recent publication on the EU's efforts to promote EU integration, according to an internal document "a supranational and civil union" for Europe should be among "the key messages conveyed by the House of European History".

"The exhibitions should make it clear that, in a world of progress, a united Europe can live together in peace and liberty on the basis of common values," said the document.

It really is amazing how candid the EU institutions are about using educational initiatives to promote a united Europe. It could be that they genuinely cannot see that these activities are wholly unjustifiable as a use for public funds, or maybe they think nobody is ever going to read the small print found in the very telling internal documents. Or maybe it's a bit of both.

Who are these amorphous Europeans? The notion of common "shared values" ignores the disparate groups of peoples within various member states, who most definitely do not share the same values. Anyone living in a typical inner city or suburb of most of the major European cities will have observed a common incompatibility between certain cultures - hence the flight of many indigenous residents to the countryside or abroad.